The One Where I’m the Monica
Every friend group has a Monica, and in mine it’s me. On being the connector and the host, the love language I inherited, and the chosen family it built.
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My Espresso Machine Wasn’t Broken (I Was)
A year of blaming a “dead” Breville, then three fixes (fresh beans, a clean grinder, a $12 scale) that brought the espresso and crema back.
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Ellis Island: What Came Through the Gate
In January of 2008 I gave myself a week in New York City for my fortieth birthday. Not for work; purely as a tourist, purely as a present to myself. One cold, bright morning, fortified by a bagel from Katz’s, I took the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island with a…
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Friday Roundup #30
Friday Roundup #30: a complicated Fourth of July, a 2008 photo from the Great Hall at Ellis Island, fall brussels sprouts, and Momofuku Bo Ssam on the kamado.
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There Is a Gallon of Mustard in My Refrigerator
A gallon of Maille Dijon showed up on purpose. The real math on buying mustard in bulk, plus the cereal bunker under the stairs.
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Friday Roundup #29
Friday Roundup: A thin week at karacooks: a garden running late, a monster love story up for a Hugo, ten pounds of cherries, and a gallon of mustard landing Thursday.
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Meemaw’s Buttermilk Biscuits
Every Sunday morning, Zach makes Meemaw’s biscuits. Light, flaky, rich with butter, tender, and just about perfect. We eat them with scrambled eggs and thick-cut bacon, sometimes with sausage gravy when we’re feeling indulgent, sometimes with nothing but butter and strawberry jelly when we want simple. Every once in a while he makes them for…
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Maine: A Love Story – Part 2
The gothic half of a Maine trip: a Boston Spenser pilgrimage, a tropical storm, the easternmost point, a Bar Harbor ghost tour, and Stephen King’s gate.
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Friday Roundup #28
A steamy Georgia-summer roundup: dirty spaghetti on the must-try list, Good Culture cottage cheese, the new Nora Roberts, cherry plums, and Kamado-grilled lunches.
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Maine: A Love Story – Part 1
Every fall, Zach and I take a week and go somewhere. Late September, early October, right before the holiday season turns into a demolition derby. We started it in 2019 and it has become the most protected week on our calendar. Tucson one year. Jekyll and Cumberland Island another. A big loop through Las Vegas…
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Why It’s First on the List
It’s Pride, and this Saturday I’m walking the Roswell Pride Walk. So before the month runs out on a calendar full of fruit salad and steak, here’s the thing I actually believe: LGBTQ+ equality is line one of what I stand for, and it isn’t an abstraction. It has names, and they eat at my table.
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Carol’s Potato Salad
Carol’s potato salad is mayo, mustard, yellow onion, celery, and dill relish dressed on hot potatoes. No secrets. Just muscle memory and good timing.
